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Principals should be given the freedom to manage their schools while still working closely with district leaders to be successful, according to a report from the George W. Bush Institute, the Alliance to Reform Education Leadership and New Leaders, a school-leaders training program based in New York City. The report outlines 15 conditions districts should meet, along with a toolbox to help assess implementation. "When principals are given the conditions that allow them to carry out this work, the schools they lead can transform children's lives," the authors write.

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A new law allows Ohio school districts to minimize the use of student test scores in grading teacher performance. Districts can use tests to account for 42.5% of a teacher's assessment with another 42.5% coming from classroom observation and lesson evaluation. The remaining 15% will be made up of parent and student surveys and other feedback. The law also will not use scores during the first year of Common Core State Standards testing in 2014-15 as a measure for teacher performance.

The Danville, Va., school district is aiming to make new principal appointments more transparent by seeking input on new hires from school personnel, parents and students. To start, the district will hold meetings with various groups to determine what they are looking for in a principal. Then candidates will be given the opportunity to speak before a panel made up of parents, school faculty, administrators and students before a final decision is made.

The Hartford, Conn., school district and the University of Connecticut have entered into a partnership to create a two-year school-leader training program tailored to the unique needs of the district in an effort to reduce principal turnover. Nine teachers have begun classes, which include instruction on teacher evaluations and the history of the school district.

Despite legal challenges, 17 states now offer programs -- from vouchers to tax credits -- that allow parents to use public tax dollars to help send their children to private schools, and more governors and lawmakers across the country are considering similar initiatives. Some school-leader and teacher organizations, which oppose the programs, contend that they divert funding from already-struggling public schools, while proponents say the programs allow lower-income families to access higher-quality private education.

Some 300 U.S. schools will next month begin to test a new measure of school-leader effectiveness. The Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education, known as VAL-ED, evaluates principals using six criteria: the rigorousness of the standards for student learning; the ambitiousness of the curriculum; the effectiveness of teachers; the health of the overall school culture; the strength of the school's community connection; and whether there is accountability for high standards.